This article is from page 8 of the 2007-10-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
AER Lingus is flying in the face of commercial logic, according to the Atlantic Connectivity Alliance (ACA).
The Alliance has claimed in its re- port on the commercial analysis of the removal of the Heathrow slots from Shannon to Heathrow shows a complete absence of any business ecle(eyeted e
The ACA’s findings show that Bel- fast-Heathrow passenger traffic has dropped alarmingly in recent years.
The ACA compiled its report fol- lowing its analysis of the Interde- partmental Report into the Shannon- Heathrow issue.
Statistics show that the region on
this island with by far the greatest fall-off in traffic on Heathrow routes is the Belfast region, where passen- ger traffic has dropped by 43 per cent in the years 2000 to 2006.
During the same period traffic vol- umes in Shannon grew by 6.3 per cent while Dublin dropped by 10.9 per cent and Cork increased by 9.0 percent.
In 2000, more than 1.6 million people were flying from Belfast to Heathrow. That has now decreased to 425,516.
In the same period, the Shannon passenger figures grew from 303,937 Kee Pelee
The ACA, in its analysis, found that Belfast share of total Ireland-Heath- row traffic has fallen from 28.5 per
cent in 2000 to 19.5 per cent in 2006. At the same time, the Shannon share of Heathrow traffic grew from 7.4 per cent to 9.5 per cent.
“How then can the (Interdepart- mental) report possibly determine that the Belfast-Heathrow option could constitute a valuable commer- cial opportunity and that Shannon- Heathrow is underperforming?” the ACA report asks.
“It may be the case that there are Opportunities to develop commer- cially viable routes from Belfast Al- dergrove (16 miles outside Belfast) for Aer Lingus but Heathrow is not one of them given that the city is already served in this market by a strong incumbent carrier (BMI with eight daily Belfast City Airport serv-
ices to and from Heathrow).”
The report also points out that there is already an established carrier (BMI) on the route operating from Belfast City Airport, which is more attractive for higher yielding busi- ness travellers.
“Aer Lingus will be offering an in- ferior product to the incumbent car- rier with half the number of daily flights from an airport that is less convenient than the alternative locat- ed closer to the city centre,” the ACA report said.
“Furthermore, to replace its lost traffic on Shannon-Heathrow (320,000 passengers), Aer Lingus will have to capture almost half of the current Belfast-Heathrow market with an inferior product offering.”